"Okay, fair enough. In that case," he stifles another yawn, "what's the story?"

"When we landed in Mareth, a set of enormous constellations were placed in our mental landscape. At that moment, something in us reached out and connected with one of those stars, stuffing the power into us. It granted a bunch of knowledge and skill. Every dawn since, those constellations have drawn near and the reaching thing tried to connect again. Until the morning we left, it always missed. That morning and this morning, we got new connections. It has been a knowledge or skill power every time, though the first one also came with an extra: a gramophone and a record for it, stored in an extradimensional space."

And he's back to Question Marks Face.

Either this is just a lot to take in, or a lot to believe. She can solve the latter and give him time to solve the former all at once.

"Here, I'll show you."

She gets up, pulls the pink gem out of her satchel, and sits down on the edge of the bed.

She calms herself and slips gently into the right mental state, then unfolds the space in the gem.

Out comes the pedestal with the gramophone atop, and the pink border displaces things out of the way.

She gestures at the pedestal. "Tada?"

"...wow. Okay. I see it. That's... that's happening. It's not—it's not that I didn't believe you, I just—couldn't picture it? Like I don't feel like I know what it means, for all that to be happening?"

She nods. "It's pretty absurd for us, too. A good way to think of it... y'know how I told the clerk yesterday that I might want to try my skills at smithing later?"

"Yeah?"

"That's because I have a vague suspicion I might inexplicably gain smithing skills at some point soon."

"Huh. I guess that makes sense? I mean, as much sense as any of this makes? If it already gave you, what was it you said, carpentry and stonework?"

She nods. "First one was about large, self-repairing structures and included 'mundane construction' with it. Second was about aerodynamics and the like. This morning's was a bunch of really high-tech stuff: guns and computers and mecha."

"Whats and whats and what?"

"Gun is shorthand for a variety of different types of firearm: handheld or emplaced weapons that use a technological mechanism (often a chemical propellant) to fire a projectile orders of magnitude faster than an arrow. Computers are the information storage and processing devices Ruby described during the visit with Hazel. Our portable one broke. And lastly mecha are large, humanoid suits of armor, usually taller than a house, piloted by a person."

"...okay, so... really exciting crossbows, little book widgets like yours, and... Suits of armour the size of a house??? That can move???"

"They move pretty fast, too. As agile as the pilot's reflexes can keep up with."

"That's pretty wild."

She nods. "It really is. Wanna go get breakfast, handsome? I probably have to head off to City Hall immediately after, so we might as well hurry."

"All right, sure."

She smiles, hops up, and gets ready to head down.

Torok changes back into his armour and puts his clothes away in his belly pouch.

"I'll find out if they have baths here after breakfast, maybe."

"Sounds like a plan!" She throws on her satchel and leads the way downstairs to breakfast when Torok's ready.

"If your work thing lets you out for lunch you could come by Market Square and watch me hang around looking for guards with free time," he suggests as they trot down the stairs. "If I haven't found one by then."

"Ooh, I'll try! It'd be nice to see you in the break."

"Yeah."

Very few people are up this early for breakfast, so they have their choice of seats; he nods questioningly at a little table along the far wall, under a window. It seems cozy.